You Have a Year (or Less) to Rebrand After a Bank Merger

WRITTEN BY Paul Wolski SVP/Creative Director

AND Craig Thompson SVP/Client Services Banking

Facing the possibility of a bank merger? You’ll have a year or less to rebrand your branches.

Does it sound too fast to implement a branch rebrand conversion program? It shouldn’t. Once a merger is announced, your brand enters a period of high risk for potential trust erosion if your customers perceive the transition as confusing or clumsily executed. With 48% of customers routinely thinking about switching banks after a merger,¹ how much time do you really have?

Why is one year the sweet spot

For a branch-wide conversion rollout program, one year is fast, but it’s not overly aggressive. It’s about responding to and respecting customer expectations for a timely transition that feels thoughtful and frictionless while maintaining a branch experience that retains the trust they have in your brand.

Brand loyalty in banking is hard-won and very easily lost. As nearly every customer interaction today is measured and qualified in terms of its experience, customers notice details large and small, from inconsistent signage and branch disruption to misalignment between mobile modernity and older, outdated branches. A year affords you the opportunity to get things right on all fronts, from design and operations to culture management, both for customers and associates. 

Fifth Third Bank located in Chicago. Fifth Third wanted a dynamic, customer-centric banking experience within its refreshed branches, one that is aesthetically pleasing, purposeful and flexible. Miller Zell's end-to-end services provide clients the customized experience they need to optimize their branded environments, meeting both budgets and deadlines. 

Time is on your side — sort of

In the world of banking execution, timelines reign supreme, and industry trends show that the financial sector is moving even faster due to advances in technology integration. In previous years, it could take banks 18-24 months to consolidate their tech assets for branch network conversions. Now, that effort can be finished in a matter of months. This clipped timeline means that branch conversion teams have a considerably shorter runway to prepare and develop their conversion rollout programs.

What a successful rebrand requires

To effectively execute a rebrand across a broad branch network, you need three strong key roles: a strong core decision-making internal team, real estate managers and execution partners.

Role 1: Too many voices create confusion. Too few create blind spots. Assemble a cross-functional group that includes key stakeholders from brand, marketing, retail operations, customer experience and legal. This baseline group sets the tone, defines the priorities and protects the customer’s experience.

Role 2: Your rebrand won’t succeed unless your physical spaces are ready to receive it. Real estate and facilities leaders are essential partners who know the timelines, lease considerations and construction realities that will either support or hinder your rollout.

Role 3: Externally, your partners matter more than ever. The American Bankers Association provides guidance on choosing a rebrand partner, and we agree with their selection criteria: Look for firms with deep experience in bank transformations, a record of successful rollouts and the project management infrastructure required to handle scale and complexity.

Another must? The creative team needs to know how to develop scalable branding elements. You’re not just looking for great creative... you’re also looking for innovative problem solvers, logistical excellence and clear-eyed honesty about what it takes to deliver a rebrand with impact while also being fiscally responsible.

Cadence Bank located in South Haven, Mississippi. Cadence maximized its rebranding opportunity and upgraded every branch in its network. After partnering with Miller Zell, it now has a standardized program across 400+ branches.

Learning from those who got it right and wrong

We’ve seen the data that shows what happens when brands underestimate the effort required to rebrand well. According to BrandFinance,² “Non-rebranded acquisitions are 56% more likely to result in serious damage to their business than rebranded acquisitions.” Their Technical Director — Alex Haigh — even commented, “The list of rebranded acquisitions gone wrong includes many small regional banks rebranded to national or international names. Banking, especially local banking, is a relationship business in which stability and security are extremely important. Many of these rebrands underestimate the impact to customer loyalty as a result of changing someone’s bank brand and suffer as a result.”

Common mistakes to avoid

1. Thinking you can manage it like a refresh program: Rebranding after a merger is not a facelift; it’s a full identity transplant. A refresh implies cosmetic changes. A rebrand touches everything: strategy, signage, compliance, associate behavior, customer trust. Treating it like a refresh risks missing the foundational work required to integrate two brand cultures and deliver a consistent experience across the network.
   
   
2. Designing for one branch: From the project onset, a scalable mindset is essential for driving strategy, programming and design that inform how a rebrand package can be developed to adapt across all branch formats and layout scenarios. What should result is a flexible yet cohesive kit of parts that facilitates branch programming.
   
   
3. Having too many vendors: While you may think a diversified approach ensures safety and equity, managing multiple partners adds logistical complexity that can put a strain on internal resources to track fragmented work streams. It’s better to find an experienced partner accustomed to managing complex programs to serve as the much-needed connective tissue among all efforts.
   
   
4. Over-reviewing and second guessing: Trust in your chosen partner provides the assurance that not every decision needs to be relitigated. Endless loops of feedback delay progress, increase costs and erode creative integrity. Establish clear approval pathways and empower your team to make aligned, confident decisions that keep momentum going.
   
   
5. Coordinating the communication plan: Failing to coordinate a unified communication plan… Internal and external communications must be in lockstep with brand rollout. If associates are unclear, customers will be too. Build a plan that spans corporate, marketing, branch staff and digital touchpoints, so every audience hears a clear, consistent message about what’s changing and why.
   
   
6. Letting a phased approach derail meaningful change: There’s nothing wrong with planning for a phased execution — it is often unavoidable. But it is important to maintain momentum and uphold commitments to see the entire program delivered. Phases that allow for too much time to pass can let the steam out of the engine and diminish or weaken the overall impact of the rebrand.
   
   
7. Juggling opposing strategies: Trying to satisfy too many competing strategies… Mergers often bring together leadership with different visions, legacy standards and customer expectations. Attempting to honor all of them equally often leads to a diluted brand experience. Make early strategic choices about positioning, tone and customer promise, and let those guide the execution. A strong brand needs clarity, not compromise.

Branding cannot be an afterthought

Many moving parts comprise the greater rebranding/conversion machine, so it’s important to engage all critical partner teams. Marketing is an important body that needs to be at the table and involved in the initial stages of rebrand and conversion strategy. In a McKinsey study,³ marketing was “significantly involved pre-close in only 50 percent of cases.” Too many banks wait too long to initiate the branding component to this process. By then, it’s a race to the finish.

We advise our clients to vet branding partners as soon as merger details begin to take shape, not after the press release is issued. And ask tough questions: Can you scale across hundreds of locations? Can you hit a 12-month window? Do you understand how to express a brand creatively while balancing a pragmatic approach to production and execution? Making the right choice can make the difference between a year that feels stressful and complicated or one that feels exciting and forward-moving.

1. https://www.americanbanker.com/opinion/poor-communication-after-a-merger-drives-customers-away
2. https://brandfinance.com/press-releases/to-rebrand-or-not-to-rebrand-rebrands-reduce-risk-in-acquisitions-by-more-than-50
3. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/m-and-a/our-insights/integrating-marketing-and-brand-in-ma-the-way-to-superior-growth